Vera Andryczyk is a card-carrying member of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, but as a Ukrainian-American, she’s putting her efforts into canvassing for Vice President Harris and reelecting the Democratic congresswoman from her district.

Foreign policy is usually a low priority in presidential elections, but Pennsylvania’s unique connection to, and investment in, U.S. support for Ukraine make it a major focus — and flashpoint — of the November contest. 

Andryczyk is part of the estimated 1 percent of Pennsylvania’s population that is of Ukrainian heritage, a small but significant number of voters in a state that President Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 81,000 votes.

“I’ve encouraged at every fundraiser, every social meeting, I keep telling them, not only can you not vote for [former President] Trump, but you have to vote for the Democrat,” the self-described young 82-year-old told The Hill in a phone call.

“Because this is a very, very close election, and we cannot afford — Ukraine, the United States, the world — cannot afford another term.” 

The Keystone State is considered one of, if not the most, important swing states in the 2024 presidential election, carrying with it the prize of 19 Electoral College votes. And Harris and Trump’s diverging positions on Ukraine are taking center stage. 

In addition to the estimated 100,000 Ukrainian-Americans in Pennsylvania, Polish-Americans make up about 5 percent of the state’s population, and it has significant populations of Americans with heritage from Baltic states and other eastern-European nations that are often concerned about their homelands being on the frontline of Russian aggression. 

These voters are not a monolith but are generally active in U.S. support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia and are fiercely protective of democracy — with family histories marred by the hardships and oppression of Nazi, communist and Soviet regimes.

Pennsylvania is also one of the main beneficiaries of U.S. aid to Ukraine, with eight congressional districts home to manufacturing companies producing military equipment either shipped to Kyiv or backfilling U.S. stocks, benefiting from the overall $121 billion spent in the U.S. since Russia’s full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky singled out Scranton in his trip to the U.S. this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, visiting a munitions factory to thank workers for their contribution. 

But his visit triggered political outrage and condemnation from Republicans who accused the wartime leader of “election meddling,” stumping for Democrats in the critical state by appearing alongside the Democratic governor and the Democratic congressman who represents the district. 

Republicans supportive of Ukraine, however, sought to downplay the scandal. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick – an outspoken GOP voice on support for Ukraine – said the controversy “might have been a huge misunderstanding,” following a meeting with Zelensky in Washington on Thursday. 

“But we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Fitzpatrick added.

But the episode highlighted the growing partisan divides over U.S. support for Ukraine. Trump is increasingly rallying Republicans to his view that the U.S. is spending too much money in its support for Ukraine, while his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has called for Kyiv to make land and security concessions to Moscow to end the war.  

Zelensky and Ukraine’s strongest supporters, including many GOP lawmakers in Washington, reject these positions. The Ukrainian president has, more recently, publicly knocked Trump and Vance.

This has further fueled political tensions, with Trump criticizing Zelensky during a campaign rally in North Carolina as “making nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me.” But Trump met with Zelensky in New York on Friday after publishing what appeared to be a complimentary text from the Ukrainian leader, saying “I really want to hear your thoughts directly, and first hand.” 

The partisan political tension is worrying for Ukrainian-Americans active in rallying U.S. support for Kyiv, where the main focus is to maintain, and grow, bipartisan backing to ensure the continuity of American support. 

“I think that, undoubtedly, there’s bipartisan support for Ukraine in Congress, both the Senate and the House, and that is a bipartisan majority that is greater than exists on most other issues that face Congress,” said Euguen Luciw, president of the Philadelphia regional branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, which advocates local and federal governments.

“The difficulty is how the executive treats that bipartisan relationship.” 

Amid the controversy between Republicans and the Ukrainian government, the Harris campaign is leaning into her support for Kyiv. In a statement on Thursday, she argued that she has been a “champion” in “standing up to dictators and autocrats” and that “The Trump-Vance-Putin plan would sell out Ukraine.” Her campaign also said Harris helped bring together allies to help Ukraine defend itself, which is a major part of President Biden’s legacy.

Leaders of Pennsylvania’s 800,000 strong Polish community put out a letter of support for Harris following the Sep. 10 presidential debate where she name-checked the community’s influence while criticizing Trump’s antagonism toward Kyiv and deference toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“Vice President Harris has a long, strong track record of protecting our democracy here at home and standing up for our brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents in Poland — the same people Vladimir Putin hopes to attack next if Ukraine were to fall,” the letter read. 

Harris on Thursday also held a solo meeting with Zelensky, separate from Biden’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader, and bashed Trump, without calling him by name, for his thoughts on how the war should end.

“There are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations,” the vice president said.

“These proposals are the same of those of Putin, and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable,” she added.

But it’s not yet clear if Pennsylvanians’ voting on the issue of Ukraine will deliver victory for Harris, in particular. 

Trump and Harris are largely neck-and-neck in the state, with Harris carrying a 1.3 percentage point lead over Trump, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ aggregation of polls. 

The candidates were tied at 46 percent each in a Susquehanna Polling and Research survey released this week, and a UMass Lowell and YouGov poll released on Thursday found Harris was up 48 percent in Pennsylvania, while Trump trails closely with 46 percent support.

When asked for their most important issue when deciding who they vote for, only 2 percent of Pennsylvanians said “international conflicts,” in a recent Muhlenberg College survey. 

This was the same percentage of support that foreign policy and climate change received. Still, it ranked ahead of violent crime, gun control and the Supreme Court and ranked just behind health care, which received 3 percent.

And in a Trump-versus-Harris matchup on foreign policy, 51 percent of Pennsylvanians said the Republican presidential nominee is most likely to “pursue a foreign policy which benefits people like you,” in a poll conducted by the Eurasia Group.

But with such tight margins, anything can shift. 

“Large portions of the Polish and Ukrainian populations in Pennsylvania are so-called Trump Democrats, who look at the entirety of his policies — but being so openly pro-Putin probably undercuts Trump’s support,” said former Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Carney (D), a senior adviser at Nossaman.

“It’s unclear if Polish and Ukrainian Pennsylvanians are more concerned about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than they are about the economy or immigration. But I cannot imagine that Trump’s recent vitriolic comments about Ukraine, Zelensky and NATO help his standing within those communities,” he added.

For Andryczyk, the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters triggered her resignation from Republican committee roles in her district. She was shocked at the attack on the democracy that was a beacon of hope when her parents fled Soviet-controlled Ukraine during World War II, then under Nazi occupation.

Trump’s criticism of Ukraine has further cemented her vote for Democrats. 

“I’m still a Republican, because I will vote for a person who embodies the principles of the Republican Party. But I will go across the line, and I will, and I have voted for Democrats.”